The flying weekend visit to Blighty went fairly well - beer & curry with the rhyming couple Friday night, comfortable win (in the end) for les cannoniers Saturday, venison dinner chez J&C in the evening, flight home on Sunday. Only problem was with the latter. Arrived at the airport and was slightly bemused to not find my flight listed on the boards. Checked my booking and discovered it was two hours later than I thought. Stansted for once was virtually empty and I had 3 and a half hours to waste. Not even a check-in or security queue to lose half an hour in.
And of course that wasn't the end of the story. Flight boarded on time, but more than an hour later the aircraft still hadn't moved. Breakdown in air traffic control radio apparently. Eventually we were airborne nearly five hours after I'd arrived at the airport. I'll get the hang of travelling one day...
We had a very enjoyable evening last night, courtesy of free tickets offered by la bienheureuse's company who were sponsoring the event, which took place in the brand spanking new Salle 3000, the amphitheatre at the Cité Internationale. "Do you speak Djembé?" was a musical melange of west African and classical western music. With audience participation. Every spectator had their own 'Djembé' drum. Great fun it was bashing away too, even if following the rythmn occasionally proved a problem. And we got free wine and nibbles afterwards too.
